Where you stand

As I wrap up my time here in Benin, I am wondering about the two Bible studies I currently have once a week. For both of course, I can’t worry, God can take care of them. But I also want to be responsible and see how God would like them to continue forward after I leave. We have a small church and thus there are people in which to confide these precious souls. The first study is with Blandine and her brother Laurent. Laurent left south for a while, but now is back. Blandine has been faithfully studying since September 2008, only missing a week here or there and sometimes because of my own travels. We did fill in the blank lessons for 7 months and now are going through the Bible stories. I asked her recently about making a decision and when we were finished the fill in the blank lessons. She wanted and wants to keep studying. I realize a part is the chains of Satan, only by prayer can they be broken, but also I realize that the culture study we are working on right now, would greatly help to reach her, where she is at in her thinking.
The other study is with Roland, my good friend since arriving here in Benin. We don’t see much of each other nowadays since we don’t live in the same compound, and he works every morning at 6AM to 12PM, then every evening 5PM to midnight, at a local streetside café. He has been blessed and now is the manager of the café. We started studying, if you recall, last February, when his cousin died and he found out it was his cousin’s own mother that caused his death through sorcery. I asked him if he wanted to study to learn how God can protect Him, and how He can be free from bondage. He did. I realized that I couldn’t just teach God’s protection, one has to commit their lives to Him, it’s not just some specific prayer you repeat everyday, it’s a life of dedication. I gave him a Bible before leaving in August, and on my return we have continued to study. Well now I wonder what to do. This last week we finally arrived at the Sabbath lesson. He never has questions, and I didn’t really know where he was at with all this information and Bible study we’d been doing. He hasn’t talked about scares with demonic attack on him or others like when we started. So I was a little nervous presenting the Sabbath. How do you teach someone about God’s special day, who never really even attended church on Sunday’s, but who isn’t either big into the animistic practices. Well I prayed and sensed God telling me to just present the Word and let the Holy Spirit do the work, that’s how it always should be! So I went over the lesson, and at the end he had a question! Although it wasn’t really exciting to hear, “So what is the Sabbath?” Oh, I just spent half an hour explaining that. Well it gave me insight on how much he’s really been understanding, and the insights weren’t done. So I summarized what we had gone over, with some clarifying points. He seemed to understand. I asked him if he wanted to follow the Sabbath, his manager job right now is 7 days a week, and I told him I knew he’d be taking a big risk, but I’d pray for him. This week I’ll ask him what he thinks or has decided. I asked him too about my leaving, since we’d only have one or two more lessons together. I asked if he’d like someone to continue with him. And he said yes, but he put in a request that was a blow to me, he’d like an European, one of the other missionaries. Now politically correctly that means, I shouldn’t be teaching him either, I’m Canadian, but what he meant was a white person. I tried to say we are all the same, that the Africans at our church know their Bible too. But no he’d like an European. I didn’t whether to laugh or cry. At least I knew where he stood. He certainly is not without hope, the seeds planted over these months will help, but I can’t do much to help with his attitude. If wants only an European teacher, how is he going to do in an African church, if he just wants benefits from white people, that’s not going to work. For now I’ll just wait, pray, and see what happens before I leave. It is disappointing to realize that since the beginning his main reason was to be connected with someone who he perceived as a benefit to him and not in a thirst for God, but that’s half the story, thought his may be what he thinks, he is thirsting for God, and I pray he’ll realize that soon.